Fire guts New Brighton apartments

NEW BRIGHTON — Tom Jasper spent Sunday afternoon retrieving what he could from his New Brighton apartment, just hours after it was destroyed by a fire that swept through his duplex.

“We found some little stuff, but most of what was in here is gone,” Jasper said. “We have a lot of food, though — the fridge was melted shut, and it looks like some of that stuff is OK.”

Jasper said he was at a bar next door around midnight when the fire broke out in the apartment at 521 Third Ave. He tried to get into his apartment at 523 Third Ave., but the fire spread too quickly.

“It went from (his neighbor’s) kitchen straight up the back of the building,” he said, pointing at melted siding along the second story of the building. “It went up so fast that there wasn’t much anyone could do to get anything out.”

Jasper said no one was home in either apartment when the fire started.

“We’re all OK, but we don’t have much left.” Jasper said, adding that the Red Cross is helping both families, neither of which has renters’ insurance. “This place has to be a total loss.”

New Brighton fire Chief Jeff Bolland agreed with that assessment, saying damage in both units was extensive. Bolland also said he planned to meet state police fire marshals at the site this morning to start an investigation into the fire’s cause.

”We know it started in the kitchen (of 521 Third Ave.),” Bolland said. “That’s really all I can say at this point.”

Firefighters from New Brighton, Beaver Falls and Pulaski, Daugherty and Rochester townships spent several hours at the building, Bolland said. No one was hurt while getting the fire under control.

Michael Pound can be reached online at mpound@timesonline.com.

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